Virtual Reality: Using Sensory Details to Bump Up Our Writing

Copyright © 2014 by Write Score LLC

Grade 5

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Readers want to feel as though they are a part of a story. They want to be engaged in such a way as to feel what the writer feels in that moment in time. Adding just the right sensory details provides the reader the virtual experience that makes them want to keep reading.

Sensory details are just as you would imagine. They are the descriptive details that use our five senses to help us to not only make a movie in our minds, but to hear, touch, taste, and even imagine the smell as we read. It issometimes difficult for students to write using sensory details; therefore, one way to help them is through photography. When we gaze at an image, it can often invoke our senses when our imagination fails.

What are sensory details?

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shimmery massive rainy snowybowing dangling overcast stormymelting dripping windy shinybubbly steamy shiny tinyfrozen hatching swaying furrywatery sandy fuzzy rocky

Sensory Details Word Bank

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onSound:

crash thud clap gurglebang slam whisper whinesquawk crack screech hisswhistle roar jangle clinksqueak sigh

Sensory Details Word Bank

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minty rottenspicy dampmusty earthymoldy fishyburnt woodsyflowery like___________(fresh

baked cookies, lemon blossoms, road kill,

cinnamon, a new puppy, attic, etc.)

Sensory Details Word Bank

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onTaste:

buttery sweet oily burntsour fishy bitter lemonyfruity salty peppery creamy

Sensory Details Word Bank

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cool gritty oily silkyicy mushy fuzzy stickysmooth slippery hot warmoily silky sandy furry

Sensory Details Word Bank

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It was so incredibly beautiful that it was almost unreal. From his height he could see not just the lake but across part of the forest, a green carpet, and it was full of life. Birds, insects—there was a constant hum and song. At the other end of the bottom of the L there was another large rock sticking out over the water and on top of the rock a snaggly pine had somehow found food and grown, bent and gnarled. Sitting on one limb was a blue bird with a crest and sharp beak, a kingfisher—he thought of a picture he had seen once—which left the branch while he watched and dove into the water. It emerged a split part of a second later. In its mouth was a small fish, wiggling silver in the sun. Ittook the fish to a limb, juggled it twice, and swallowed it whole.

-from Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

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onDarkness fell between the trees edging the field. Suddenly the sky exploded in color. Sparks of red, white, and blue rained down around the crowd. Bolts of light created bursts of daylight, ending with a thunderous “BOOM!” Our earsrang and we jumped, startled from our lawn chairs.

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With your partner, discuss, then write to describe the image below. Use a variety of sensory details.

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ce The following slide depicts two images in which several types of sensory details may be used to describe what is happening in each photo.

In your writer’s notebook (or plain lined paper), write sentences describing the two photos. Be sure to use a variety of sensory details.

Today’s Task:

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